Taking a break

I'm going to shut down the blog for a while (as if I hadn't already). To be honest, I haven't had a lot of inspiration for this the last few months and have also become extremely busy, both at work and in my personal life. I wish everyone well and will try to check in on others' blogs as I have time. I just don't have the ability right now to actually write my own.

Thanks to all who have listened to me ramble over the last year-plus!

Finally a break in the action

I've had a busy 4-6 weeks, to say the least, both personally and at work. Now, I finally have a break at work and thought I'd put together a quick post about Halloween.

Myles has big plans this year. He wanted it this way and I, of course, was happy to plan for him. Starting next weekend, we'll have tons of stuff going on:

*Sea World Spooktacular (first year trying this, as we just got passes through the end of the year)
*Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween (at Disney's Magic Kingdom)
*Trick-or-treating at Daddy's workplace (this was a blast last year)
*Trick-or-treating at daycare (again, a great time for him and I take this day off from work)

And of course, Halloween itself, which will include trick-or-treating around the neighborhood.

Billy and I are both dressing up this year - at Myles' request. I think I'm dressing as a witch and we're not sure about Billy. Myles has two costumes this year - his choice, a character named "Dementor," who is apparently on Harry Potter and looks very scary, and our "nice guy" costume, which he wanted no part of, a UPS guy.

For now, he's only wearing Dementor on Halloween and MAYBE at Billy's office. It's not appropriate for the daycare, Sea World or even Disney, IMO.

Regardless, we're planning to have a great time during this season and continue it on through Thanksgiving and Christmas. And to top it off, we start October with our first lows in the '60s. Aaah, comfort is finally on its way back to Florida!

Busy, busy

I was on a cruise from Aug. 29-Sept. 6 and am just starting to come up for air. Never knew how much it takes out of you to be gone for so long.

I'm way behind on my updates so here's a (very) quick overview.

1. Billy and I celebrated 10 years on 9.5 while on the cruise ship! We had a wonderful time and visited Cozumel, Costa Rica and Panama. You can see a link to our photos here. We did not take Myles and it is the LAST time we'll do a vacation w/o him. We missed him terribly and talked to him very little due to the sky-high costs of calling someone while on a ship.

2. Myles turned 3.5 years old on 9.13 and we celebrated w/ a trip to Sea World and a cute alligator cake that he picked out. I posted a couple of photos below.

I'll try to catch up w/ everyone this week. Hope you are all well!

Thinking ahead

Myles and I had a conversation this morning about Halloween. We are going to have a blast this year! You see, I have a son who is obsessed with villains. He will have a tough time deciding just what "meanine" he wants to be. He told me today he wants to be a ghost, but we'll see.

I do know I am taking him shopping for his costume for the first time this year. Letting him pick out his costume will be so much fun - and even better seeing him wear it! He talked the whole ride this morning about scaring everyone and saying "trick or treat." Heck, he's got me so excited, I may even dress up with him!

We are planning to take Myles back to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween party this year, some Sunday in October. We had such a great time last year, it's a must-do for our family for the forseeable future. We will also have the trick-or-treating parade at the daycare to look forward to, along with, of course, Halloween itself.

I'm excited just thinking about it! Come on, October!!!

Myself Belts - hopefully a lifesaver

We were over at my friend Molly's house this weekend and started talking about school uniforms. She has 3 boys and her middle boy is in private school, where he is required to wear a specific uniform each day. She proceeded to tell me about these great belts she buys for him (since he's required to wear them at school) at a site called Myself Belts. She brought one outside so that I could see it and I just had to buy one for Myles!

Myles has never owned a belt and now that he is approaching 3 1/2 - and is wearing more little boy type clothes instead of toddler clothes, he needs them. Plus, he's a very tall boy and we often have issues with shorts and pants that are a little big in the waist but fine in the length. Just the other day, he came home from daycare with his pants safety pinned so they would stop falling down!

Myself Belts offers boys' and girls' belts that look like a regular belt with a clasp, but actually fasten with velcro, making them easy for small children to work with when they need to go to the potty. I received confirmation that his belt shipped today and I can't wait to try it out. I'll be sure to post how it works out!

Great quote

I had a rough night and rough morning with Myles. The timer is still working well but he is lashing out terribly and saying some awful things to us. He assures us he wants out of our house and wants to go live with his Mimi (my mom) in Ocala. He'll get that chance for nine days at the end of the month.

Anyway, I was extremely down today and feeling like a giant loser of a parent. I started looking for some inspiration online and found a great quote: "Be willing to let go of the good things so that you can spend enough time on the best things."

I need to take this to heart. Myles is that best thing. Time to start cutting.

Making progress with a 3 year-old

I have to say this: 3 has been a really tough age for Myles, Billy and me. Gone are the days of the sweet baby, and even the curious (but still sweet) 2 year-old. Three has been - at best - a challenge. Billy and I have often felt like we're drowning in our efforts to find the right approach to stop some of Myles' trying ways...and have been coming up empty time after time.

But now, we may be onto something. We bought a kitchen timer. I introduced him to "my friend Timer" and told him that Timer would be going off when it was time for him to do something. At dinner, he has 25 minutes to eat. If Timer goes off before he finishes, the dogs get what's left. At 9:00, Timer goes off again and it's time for bath. You get the picture.

Well of course, being a 3 year-old, the first night at dinner with Timer was a big test. He ignored our warnings and thought there would be no consequences. He played most of dinner, only taking a bite of applesauce here and there and completely ignoring the chicken on his plate. Well, Timer went off and I walked over to pick up the plate. He FREAKED out! No! No! No! I'll eat! You can't take my plate! No food for the dogs!

He put his arms around the plate so that I couldn't get to it. Billy and I were shocked. So we gave in. We put 5 minutes on Timer and said if the food wasn't gone when Timer went off again, he was done. He chowed down his food in record time.

The second night was much easier. We put Timer on the table, told him he had 25 minutes, and the food was gone before it went off. We gave him major kudos and told him over and over again that he had "won." He had "beat" Timer! (He's extremely competitive so one way to make him do anything you want is to make it a race.)

Timer is also working fairly well so far for bath and bed time. Could we be making some progress? With God's grace, we are. I don't know how much more I can take!

When again is he turning four???